Eastern Railroad Discussion > What the letters "CSX" stand for

I had heard it was a condensation of eXpanded Chessie System but XCS was not acceptable so it became CSX. I also heard it was because when Chessie absorbed, merged or whatever, with several other railroads, it was no longer a "rail road" per se, but a corporation and as such the "X" had to be added to "CS." There are undoubtedly a bunch of other hypotheticals out there. Anybody know the real answer?

There is no legal requirement that an "X" be added just because the company has expanded beyond being just a railroad. If that were the case, the New Haven would have had to do that when it bought a bus line decades earlier. There were conglomerates long before CSX ever came into existence.

Merger names commonly throw an X at the end of the two companies initials as a (usually) temporary name while they are doing filings and still consolidating and thinking of a new name. This is what happened with CSX, the "X" was just a common letter for mergers like any other company so they used it. One way or another it stuck. They justify the name by saying that it means "multiplied" which is fine but that was a later explanation of the naming and actually was not the reason why they chose the name. It seems like many things with CSX, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Here they left it CSX because it worked and found a way to justify it as a meaningful name, which it now is.

BobP Wrote:
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> From above it sounds like "X" was a place holder
> until what follows "CS" could be figured out. Then
> things got complicated and the "X" stuck.

dash944cw Wrote:
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> I had heard it was a condensation of eXpanded
> Chessie System but XCS was not acceptable so it
> became CSX. I also heard it was because when
> Chessie absorbed, merged or whatever, with several
> other railroads, it was no longer a "rail road"
> per se, but a corporation and as such the "X" had
> to be added to "CS." There are undoubtedly a
> bunch of other hypotheticals out there. Anybody
> know the real answer?

mkostecky Wrote:
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> dash944cw Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I had heard it was a condensation of eXpanded
> > Chessie System but XCS was not acceptable so it
> > became CSX. I also heard it was because when
> > Chessie absorbed, merged or whatever, with
> several
> > other railroads, it was no longer a "rail road"
> > per se, but a corporation and as such the "X"
> had
> > to be added to "CS." There are undoubtedly a
> > bunch of other hypotheticals out there.
> Anybody
> > know the real answer?
>
>
> Crash, Spill & eXplode.

Wow, I am impressed, it took over 14 hours for this stupid one to come out.

csxdispatcher Wrote:
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> mkostecky Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > dash944cw Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I had heard it was a condensation of eXpanded
> > > Chessie System but XCS was not acceptable so
> it
> > > became CSX. I also heard it was because when
> > > Chessie absorbed, merged or whatever, with
> > several
> > > other railroads, it was no longer a "rail
> road"
> > > per se, but a corporation and as such the "X"
> > had
> > > to be added to "CS." There are undoubtedly a
> > > bunch of other hypotheticals out there.
> > Anybody
> > > know the real answer?
> >
> >
> > Crash, Spill & eXplode.
>
> Wow, I am impressed, it took over 14 hours for
> this stupid one to come out.

What's more impressive is that the OP's question was answered less than 30 minutes after they posted. But people still felt compelled to put their biased opinions forward.

Taking the moderator's message to all about civility, etc., I’m not sure what is unseemly, old chestnuts that make fun of the RRs or self righteous loathing.

For instance - the NYO&W had been routinely referred to as the "old woman". The Washington and Waynesburg (obscurish PA narrow gage) was the "weak and weary". Good for a chuckle.

When considering the somewhat banal origins that led to the world of "Practice Safe CSX" (they didn't see that one coming?), levity is warranted, perhaps encouraged. It certainly isn't political or mean spirited.

Then again, as it is with most ground employees anywhere (not just railroaders), complaining can bring a sense of unity ;-]

CivilEngineer Wrote:
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> Taking the moderator's message to all about
> civility, etc., I’m not sure what is unseemly,
> old chestnuts that make fun of the RRs or self
> righteous loathing.
>
> For instance - the NYO&W had been routinely
> referred to as the "old woman". The Washington
> and Waynesburg (obscurish PA narrow gage) was the
> "weak and weary". Good for a chuckle.
>

To me, "Crash spill explode" is an insensitive, ignorant thing to say around railroaders who just might or have had to face such a thing in their lifetime. I have lost a coworker on the job, and really fail to see the humor, regardless of the posters intention. I have no issues with such sayings as "Common Sense eXculded" or some other Chicken sayings. If the moderators have an issue with my stance, so be it.....

csxdispatcher Wrote:
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> To me, "Crash spill explode" is an insensitive,
> ignorant thing to say around railroaders who just
> might or have had to face such a thing in their
> lifetime.